Lee divides the poem into twelve sections each containing an individualized piece of his picture. When he brings the poem to the present talking of his lover he mentions teaching her Chinese. However, he doesn’t completely remember his language—while he puts the Chinese translations in italics the repeated “I’ve forgotten” (24, 25) is left unchanged. He also leaves space between the English and the Chinese which symbolizes his pause recalling the meaning.
He repeats phrasing in the poem which adds to the nostalgic tone and shows his repeated thoughts with the passing of time. After he was punished for not knowing the difference between “persimmon” and “precision” he says, “[h]ow to choose/persimmons. This is precision” (6-7). He references this again when the teacher ironically brings in an unripe persimmon as it’s been presented imprecisely. This relates to the significance of persimmons mentioned in the fifth part “[m]y mother said every persimmon has a sun/inside…/warm as my face” (46-48), and builds his symbolic meaning for the fruit.
Besides invoking the memory of his mother’s words the fruit also relates to his father’s ability to paint them despite blindness. That ability shows the familiarity of the fruit in his parents’ home and its presence in his childhood. He uses the correct method for choosing and eating a persimmon (6-17) as an example of culture he does remember. When he returns home, he looks for persimmons and finds them in the cellar which facilitates his father’s encouraging words “[s]ome things never leave a person:/ scent of the hair of one you love,/the texture of persimmons,/in your palm the ripe weight” (85-88). This resolution conveys the transformation of the poem’s tone.
Lee began the poem telling of an unpleasant memory, develops this into his current frustration, but shows his happiness with his new culture by giving the examples of what “wren” and “yarn” mean and his father’s reassurance that he won’t lose what’s truly meaningful. The poem ends with the weight of the ripe fruit showing that despite the teacher’s insensitivity to his cultural background he’s still knowledgeable in a personally significant way.
The author seemed to purposefully write the poem so that the piece had a “face value story” but also a much deeper message beneath. He seemed to show his resolution with his new life, despite some lost memories. By incorporating good memories and resolving the piece he conveys his current situation favorably. Though he moved to America and had difficulty with both Chinese and English, he’s contented.
